Our Mission of Mercy
As Christians, we get to share in so many wonderful joys and mysteries of our faith. The world knows us for the fantastic miracles of Christmas and Easter that we celebrate so publicly. But there is one we can be quick to forget or hesitant to embrace. Funnily enough, it could be argued that this mysterious miracle is in fact the core of both our Christmas and Easter celebrations. That is – God’s Divine mercy.
It’s something that may crop up once a year or someone might scrawl the word in beautiful calligraphy that we have a ‘loving and merciful God’. But mercy isn’t something we dwell on as much as we should. And I think that is simply because it’s something so Godly, we don’t see much of it anymore.
In events of wrongdoing and mistakes, to be merciful is something that’s respected but not expected by our modern society. If you want to forgive your enemies – good for you. But no one these days encourages – let alone, demands – you show your enemies mercy.
It’s almost like we lose it with our innocence of childhood.
When we are little and make mistakes, the anger of our parents is almost punishment enough for whatever we did wrong. Sometimes the dread of looking my Dad in the eye was enough to make me feel sick when I was a kid and I knew I was in trouble. But after making you bear the consequences of your actions, good parents console you, forgive you, tell you they love you. Even though we didn’t know it then, they often didn’t even let us feel the full brunt of the consequences we probably deserved.
For some reason, we all know that it only makes sense to show children endless mercy for the mistakes they make. It’s actually strange – even wrong – to not give a child such a display of love.
But suddenly, we’re grown up and no one has that patience for us. No one grabs us by the hand to help us back up and certainly no one is expected to show you mercy.
It becomes the noblest display of kindness when someone does.
No wonder then, that as adults without our parents always there to tell us they love us, do we think we aren’t worthy of Divine love. Because no one talks about the Divine Mercy that comes with it. And even more so, no one seems to practice it.
As God’s people, we need to be instruments for this mercy to play out. We need to display it to those society shuns. How are we supposed to think ourselves worthy of it if we refuse it to others?
That’s the greatest thing I find about this mystery – it’s a gift that we will always receive more of than what we give. We will always get more out of it than what we put in. God won’t be outdone in anything.
Mercy is something that’s unfathomable until you experience it. It obliterates the walls of ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ we construct in our human minds and builds them back up with a Divine plan in mind – to get us all to Heaven.
“For it is in giving that we receive,” said Francis of Assisi. You will only truly feel the mercy waiting for you if today, you stop and give it to the first person you come across. Give them an extra minute of your time, ask them a follow up question about how they are, smile and tell them genuinely you hope their day goes well for them.
Give them the Mercy that Christ died to give.
Elise Drum
Elise is a third year Medical student from rural NSW who enjoys a variety of sports and being outdoors. She also loves food but when it comes to cooking – she claims to burn water.
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